Hong Kong's Sing Tao Daily
talks about some tough anti-cheating measures in various places. Some provinces even ban candidates from bringing their own pens, it says.

Shanghai Morning Post
says some microblog users have estimated how the cost of the exam has changed over the past 35 years, saying that people are now paying "tens of thousands times more money" for Gaokao than in 1977.

Even companies with names seen as auspicious or those owned by universities have seen their share prices rally because of the exam.

The most discussed topic is the exam paper for Chinese language composition. Some 15 provinces and municipalities were granted autonomy to administer their own exam papers, aside from the two sets of national test papers.

Beijing News
says that well-known Chinese writer Jiang Fangzhou has criticised the topic of the capital's composition paper for being too dull.

However, the
Shanghai Morning Post
says that city's topic, Glimmer in Your Heart, has been cited for its creativity by former education ministry spokesman Wang Xuming. He even said that he was "tempted" to write his own interpretation of the topic.

Beijing Times
says many microbloggers were spreading news of this year's exam papers soon after the test began. But the information proved wrong, after education authorities released the actual papers to the public at midday.

People's Daily Overseas Edition
says years of heated debate on the composition papers is a result of the public's expectation on China's language education reform.